During a recent visit to the Andijan region, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev met with representatives of foreign companies that are considering the possibility of investing in regional projects. At this meeting, plans were announced for a significant expansion of hydropower capacity in Andijan. They note that already this year it is planned to launch 763 small and micro-hydroelectric power plants, the total capacity of which will be 24 megawatts.
In addition to this, another 20 megawatts of capacity is planned for next year through similar hydropower plants.
Such a large-scale project, involving the construction of hundreds of separate hydraulic structures, raises serious concerns about its impact on the environment. Even small hydroelectric power stations can radically change the hydrological regime of rivers, create barriers to fish migration, disrupt the natural movement of bottom sediments and lead to the degradation of unique river and coastal ecosystems.
Of particular concern is the cumulative effect of such massive intervention in the water arteries of the region. The question arises whether a proper environmental assessment has been carried out for each of the hundreds of planned hydroelectric power stations and whether the total damage that may be caused to the nature of the Andijan region as a result of the implementation of this ambitious plan is taken into account.
At the meeting, one of the Chinese companies expressed its readiness to organize the production of the necessary equipment for small hydroelectric power stations directly in the Andijan region. The investor also proposed organizing free maintenance of the constructed hydroelectric power stations during the first year of operation, which emphasizes the economic benefits of the initiative.
Despite the declared goals of developing «green» energy and attracting investment, the implementation of projects of this scale requires the highest degree of environmental responsibility, environmentalists warn. «When building such a gigantic number of hydroelectric power stations, strict environmental control of each project and a preliminary assessment of their cumulative effect are necessary in order to effectively minimize the inevitable negative consequences for the environment», — regional director of the public environmental coalition «Rivers Without Borders» Alexander Kolotov is sure.
Let us recall that according to the recent decree of the President of Uzbekistan on measures to develop a network of microhydroelectric power plants (microhydroelectric power plants), it is planned to build almost three thousand small hydroelectric power plants with a total capacity of 164 MW in the country in the next two years.
